Introduction:
Your products or services are really great, but still, people buy from your competitor’s shop, why? Because your competitor has built its reputation through a strong personal branding approach. In order to stand out from the competition, you also need to build a strong personal brand for your small business. Personal branding can be anything starting from creating a unique name to a unique design, slogan and generating positive customer experience.
Internet and advanced technology have provided many great platforms for businesses to make their shops and earn customers. But it is your responsibility as a small business to make your identity and reputation over these platforms.
I’ve 5 solid ways to build a personal brand for your small business. Better for you to check them in order to get 1000’s of consistent customers.
5 Ways to Build a Personal Brand for Your Small Business
Personal Branding is crucial for everyone; for influencers, for businesses, and even for non-profit organizations. Because it builds your identity and shows your objective to the audience, which in turn earns you a strong reputation.
Personal branding expects you to;
- Identify your strengths and weaknesses, and show people what makes you unique from the other competitive brands.
- Explain your objective in the most simplest way possible, so that people might not get confused whenever they see your brand. They should know what you actually do; what services you provide and what your products are.
- Show your audience how you created your brand or what’s the purpose of your brand. It should be an impactful story or a message so that people can always memorize your brand and can have an emotional and empathic connection with your business.
- Personal branding expects you to post visual content more often. If you’ve posted a long paragraph about your brand or product, people will ignore it. On the other hand, if you post a visually appealing video or an image post, people will not just see it but will also interact with it by liking, commenting, and sharing.
- It expects you to be present everywhere. You as a small business should be on all social media platforms. Having a website is also a must.
1. Choose a Unique Identity
Uniqueness is one of the most basic factors that sets you apart from the competition. Don’t copy any other brand’s logo or even name, because no one will be able to recognize you, instead whenever people will look at your name or logo, they’ll suddenly think of you as if you’re another branch or part of that brand which you copy.
So be unique in terms of your whole identity. For example, there are a lot of other platforms through which people can call their loved ones, but whenever they see a green call option, the first thing that comes to their mind is WHATSAPP.
So, in order to build a strong personal brand for your small business, you will have to choose a unique identity.
2. Clear Brand Name
Your brand name should be very clear. If your small business is about selling clothes, your brand name should reflect it.
Don’t make people confused about what you sell or what services you offer. Whenever they see your brand name, they should instantly understand what your business is all about.
Suppose if someone is an IT consultant, his brand name should be on his name plus with the addition of his services. For example; if Adam Paul is an IT consultant, ‘Adam Paul’s IT consulting’ will sound more clear instead of any other ambiguous name such as APIT or Adam Firm.
Because your brand name should clearly explain what you do.
3. Be Memorable through Honest Storytelling
Many brands do different stunts in order to go viral or famous among people, but that popularity comes at a cost. A safe way to make your place in people’s hearts is through true storytelling techniques. By telling your true brand’s story, you can craft an impactful message due to which no one will be able to forget you.
It is the most genuine and best way to win people’s trust and build a strong and honest reputation among people. In business terms, it is called ‘Safe Play’. On the other hand, doing stunts is a very risky and harsh way to make people familiar with your brand.
4. Consistency, Color Scheme and Visual Content
The most important part of branding is the design and visual content that you publish on your social media accounts as a small business. To get recognition and let people remember you, you will have to use the same color scheme across all your platforms, with the same message.
Even some brands take care of the minimum details too such as font size and font type. So, you as a small business should also have to take care of the small details to build a strong personal brand.
Lastly, it is very important for you to stay consistent in terms of publishing visual content, even if you don’t get any views or likes at the start.
5. Be Present Everywhere
If you are selling your products offline as a small business owner, you better go online.
Both offline and online presence are important for you to grow and build a strong personal brand. Gen Z is more into online shopping, so if they can’t find you online, you’ve lost a major customer figure.
So, be present across all the platforms and publish the same type of content everywhere.
Conclusion
Building a strong personal brand is not hard unless you follow the right approach and the ways that I’ve mentioned above. Don’t find short and easy ways to get popularity, because those viral stunts have consequences too.
So, follow the footsteps of big and successful businesses and you’ll get there. Just be genuine in terms of showing your brand’s objective and you’ll grasp consistent customers.
The last yet most important piece of advice is about your product quality. If you’ve followed all the above-mentioned steps and are doing everything right, but your product quality is not good, you won’t be able to build a good reputation among people.